President Obama’s new proposed budget won’t include cutting Social Security benefits by adopting a chained-CPI. The AP reports the White House has dropped the controversial change.

Last year in a desperate final attempt to spur a grand bargain Obama put forward a “compromise” budget which included entitlement cuts like chained-CPI. Despite upsetting many Democrats, the effort failed to garner any Republican support.

This is a big victory for the defenders of Social Security who have for years been fighting a very well-financed coalition of so called “deficit” groups focused on undermining the retirement security for millions of Americans.

This is also another sign that Obama has finally accepted that Republicans will not help him accomplish anything. Since the moment Obama took office he has been trying to get Republicans to back a giant deficit package which cut benefits and raised taxes. Now after five years of failed attempts which have indirectly created numerous problems, the President seems to have accepted that his goal is not going to be achieved even if the offer is still technically on the table.

Carton by Greg Uchrin, used under Creative Commons license